i'm more than a little jazzed to see carol es' new work at tonight's opening.

she'll be speaking about her work, something she openly admits to dreading. she reveals in her blog, 'do i have to defend my work? do i have to spoon feed it to you? do you really care why i do it? does my inner torment really matter? you either like the crap or you don't..'

and she has a point. verbalize too much about your artwork and you run the risk of demystifying what should be a very private experience between the viewer and the art. after all, if you have to have everything explained to you about art, then maybe you're missing the point entirely. isn't that what experiencing art is all about? getting your rocks off? i challenge artists to show me something new, or better yet....something i had deep in the recesses of my mind, something that represents perfection and beauty to me, but just haven't seen in the form of art yet.

on the flip side, never sharing your thoughts about your art can lead people to believe you're unfocused, lackadaisical, or even worse...just plain stupid.

i, for one, believe carol's art needs little explanation. it speaks to me in ways no one could ever have words for...but, that's just me. i like a good mystery.

i was up half the night tossing and turning...you've heard of sympathetic pregnancy? well, maybe this was sympathetic anxiety..(congratulations carol! and thanks for getting my rocks off!!)

Many artists just don't have the words. That's why they are artists and work with visuals. But if you find an artist who can talk about the work, it is great. You still get to have your opinions. The viewer still completes the piece, no matter what. But hearing what was on their mind can be very enlightening.

indeed..you know better than most regarding artist's intentions.i'm wondering if you've ever talked with an artist for the first time, having liked their work in the past.....and upon hearing their explanations you like the work less.

yes, you have your original response catalogued, but has your opinion of the work ever been tainted?

and i'm doing great...busy busy. think i might be showing in your neighborhood in the near future!!

In the beginning of Artstar especially, I would go to shows and I might ask the gallery if the artist would come on the air because I liked their work. But I did not know them personally.

Then they would get on the air (and on the phone with me beforehand of course) and either A) be a real asshole or B) have completely different intentions about their work than I had ever imagined.

I've had artists say "It means nothing" on the air and stick to it.

Well, thanks for that. Now we have a whole hour ahead of us while I try to squeeze something out of 'nothing.'

This is also true for my curating now. I don't care how talented or great the work is if the artist are not behaving properly towards me.

I'll be frank here: Artstar to me is journalism.....in other words, I don't have to LIKE the work and often have not really. Of course the artist never knows it! I bring them out and act all interested and hyped (it's my job to be so).

But me, I am facing a deadline and I figure that this artist will fill the hour in an interesting way. So you can see how it becomes less about the work and more about the actual personality of the artist. Nowadays, I never ever book someone I have never met....' cause I've been stuck in the cold subbbasement at KPSU more than once with a jerk and now, I never let that happen. But if an artist is conversant and interesting (not merely to me but maybe to the world), that is a candidate.

One thing that has happened sometimes is I book an artist whose work I am not that crazy about, but I know they will make a good story. Then, as the tell their story on the air, I become converted. I end up liking the work much more than I had. It's like they convinced me and of course I am leaving with lots more info than i had before. So you see, the opposite can happen too. That has actually happened many times.